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The Peasants' Revolt

by NIGHTSONG

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1.
Pauper's Son 04:44
PAUPER’S SON “Sheep devoured the human flesh” Handed down by good King Death Who took away the strongest serfs And buried them deep beneath the earth Labourers so left the land And those remaining did command For their good work a higher fee From landowner and legatee Engrossers knew their further wrath Would see their hirelings, stick and cloth, Take their sweat to higher ground For pennies, shillings, English pounds. And so, in 1381 They took their tools and set upon The house of he who forced their plight To earnestly assert their rights Away, away, you pauper’s son Take to your heels and run, run, run You tax our land, you tax our corn Away, away you pauper’s son The damage caused was fifty pounds But the villein’s court it handed down Sentences so hesitant Recipients thought them Heaven sent The reins of power were switched around As the poll collector licked his wounds He’d pushed the people to the brim Until the people turned on him Away, away, you pauper’s son Take to your heels and run, run, run You tax our land, you tax our corn Away, away you pauper’s son Away, away, you pauper’s son Take to your heels and run, run, run You tax our land, you tax our corn Away, away you pauper’s son © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
2.
Fantasy 00:40
3.
The Bridge 04:53
THE BRIDGE The Legions’ legacy of metal and stone Crossed river and beck in the line of a crow O’er hilltops, through forest, standing clear of the mire Fast moving north until forced to retire The Crown and its Council staked out their view To carve up the land for their vassals and chiefs With the void in between falling into decline Impassable tracks by rain or high tide Midsummer to Fall. Season for thieves Breakneck bivouacs of branches and leaves For to prey on the herdsmen, croppers and kind As livestock and harvests came into their prime As livestock and harvests came into their prime Hastening flight from country to town Gone in an instant not to be found But this day was different. Stopped at the ford To arrive on the day that the bridge came down To arrive on the day that the bridge came down The serfs and the peasants picked up the pieces And scavenged the county for cobnuts and berries To wait for the day of the rustlers’ return Now their route of escape had been slowed by the surge Like the fall of the moon and the rise of the sun The scoundrels returned when the harvest was done And the wary laid waiting, reinforced by their kin To menace the thieves to repent of their sins To menace the thieves to repent of their sins Their flight so impeded from country to town Stocks holding fast the new tenants they’d found This day victorious for the villagers stand In praise of the day that the bridge came down In praise of the day that the bridge came down Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
4.
SAINT MARY MAGDALEN Herding the goats and the flocks on their holdings Gathering the fruit of the land They laboured in peace, and spoke to the silence Cursed from their feet to their hands Cast from their homes, cast from their houses To a place half way to Heaven’s gate People of God but without any order Reconciled to their fate The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene Begging for alms, praying for souls Tilling and hoeing the soil. Lesions and bruises, singing His praises As they went about their toil Out where the thoroughfares crossed their direction Away from the villagers’ gaze This was their refuge, this was their penance Purgatory for the rest of their days The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene The people of St. Mary Magdalene © John Reed NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
5.
Selion 00:48
6.
The Spell 03:56
The Spell  Before the Essenes, there were we.  The gift came down from my Mother to me.     A guardian I was of sound    To sing the Earth into the clouds.  Who will hold you when you sleep? In the vale of death, your heart to keep? Who will mend the ills you fall? The healing balm remembers all.  I could make my throat, like a butterfly.  I could pierce the heart like an arrow in flame. I’m earth and wind and fire and rain. Yeah they were afraid of the folk like me  A witch they said would burn at sea  They were afraid of the folk like me But the sea is my mother  and she will carry me from one life to another  I keep coming back  (The healers, the seers, the handlers of truth) ©️ Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved. Lyrics © Jo Beth Young 2020
7.
Hireling 00:30
8.
Wharram 05:21
WHARRAM It’s half a thousand years or more Since coulter disc and share did score Furrows in the verdant earth For the wealth of lords and the lives of serfs Heaps and mounds are all we found Amid the surly cattle crowd Grazing there amid the ruins Where once good folk had farmed the land One of Britain’s three thousand Villages returned to land Basin valley in the Wolds They didn’t return to Wharram They didn’t return to Wharram Ritual cuts on human bones To halt the return of the dead and their ghosts Assured the Scandinavians Children, babies women, men Lagmann, Carli, Ketilbjorn Held the land as the Normans swarmed When the Percys ruled till the line was cut The spouse of the heir by the plague was struck Chorus Hilton by the law of the crown Took the land and levelled it down Wealth derived from ewe and ram Razed the strips of corn and grain And with their land in confiscation Good folk at the mercy of the Baron But the Baron was cruel and brought to an end Five hundred years of working the land Chorus © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
9.
Offoldfal 05:57
OFFOLDFAL Edmunds to Elmham, to the ‘Isle of Eels’ Causeways carried the harvest yield That ‘The Great Heathen Army’ once plundered abroad Till the fleets were held back by the gathering silt Washed by waters, flooded by sea Fertile expanse of Aethelthryth’s terrain, Trackless bogs to a solitary place Where the morning mists would silence the paddles Carried by stealth past ollands and lakes Ferrying wealth from husbands to abbeys Or out to the vessels that wait on the tide Portering cargoes from rights of the common Farmers and chieftains, clergy and saints Coveted earth of the dismal fen Merchants and traders, boatmen and priests Fearful of Holland’s disorderly men Two pence a year by Martinmas From every man with a house and a fire For to cut of the turves and lay of the thatch To graze of the pasture by the open sea To catch of their share of the fish and the fowl And to share of the land of the offoldfal And the fog would roll in its defensive shroud And settle the land where the corncrake calls Conferring its refuge, mystery and peace Selion and meadow to serve up their feast While innocents cut at the peat and the furze Falsified charters wrestled the deeds Banking the marshes for profit and lords ‘Till widening skies put a crack in their armour Two pence a year by Martinmas From every man with a house and a fire For to cut of the turves and lay of the thatch To graze of the pasture by the open sea To catch of their share of fish and fowl And to share of the land of the offoldfal © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
10.
Penance 00:58
11.
Bury Me Deep 04:42
BURY ME DEEP We’ve come to rely On fragments of lives To understand The things that lie Behind the way We have become, Have come to this When’s said and done Bury me deep Bury me well Bury me with my story to tell Bury me deep Bury the sound Bury me deep beneath the ground Buried shards And silver coins Artefacts That were employed To make the meals Or store them well Through Autumn storms And Winter’s chill Chorus Centuries on In the midst of a wood They’ll stumble on My neighbourhood A discovery A wonderment A chance to piece The jigsaw left Chorus © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
12.
Bivouac 00:45
13.
Rushlight 05:24
RUSHLIGHT There’s a beacon on the ridge In a place that is silent Take the path in the dark That’s sprinkled with star light Make for the ford That’s burning by moonlight Stumble through the forest By the glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight Lords of the land And ladies of twilight Survey their domain For the onset of sunlight Catching the dew As it falls from the leaves Steer through the mist As it hangs in the valley The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight Rest against the tree As its roots gather round Soak up the strength Gifted from the ground By hook or by crook The journey resumes By the light of the rush And its tallow fumes The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight The glow of the rushlight © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
14.
Flame 00:28
15.
THE KING’S FEAST Call on the woodsman. Call on the bowyer Burn the forest for its coal Turn the shaft upon the woodlathe Strike the forge to point the arrow Pluck the arrow from its quiver Slay the beast for the sport of kings Pare the planks to build the table Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink Call on the wheelwright. Call on the cooper. Heat the steel until it glows Form the steel around the rim Steam the wood to fit the tyre Bear the ale from monastery to king Pass the fowler at his trade Rattling to its journey’s end Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink Venison and ale to drink © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.
16.
The Shroud 04:44
SHROUD The skin you were born with Garments for your work Best for your worship The shroud that you die in “Sweet Jesus, be not angry 
I have neither rag nor cloth to fold thee in 
I have nothing but a rag of a lap Therefore, lay thy feet unto my breast
 And keep from the cold.” Bound to the home till worship or harvest Spinning the hempcloth and linen for gowns Candlelight threads till her poor fingers bled On the carpet of rushes that lay on the ground The skin you were born with Garments for your work Best for your worship The shroud that you die in The tunics of men sweated labour again Next day their backs without scour or scald The women at home, desirous of madder Settled for plunket derived from the woad Wimples for mothers, loose hair for whores Long woollen dresses with aprons for chores Ladies ride by in their crimson pride Gentlemen alert by their side The skin you were born with Garments for your work Best for your worship The shroud that you die in Then at twenty or thirty or forty at best The desire of God’s will would lay her to rest Lords and their servants gathered around Respect her remains, wrapped in a shroud The skin you were born with Garments for your work Best for your worship The shroud that you die in © Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.

about

They were just like us, yet their lives were barely documented. Baronial and ecclesiastical farm inventories and documents of trade have provided some idea of how they lived, but the greater part of what we know comes from archaeological evidence and supposition based on the available information, and the stories vary from one part of the country to another. They were just like us.

credits

released December 21, 2020

NIGHTSONG are:

Ali Karim: Production, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
John Reed: Vocals, backing vocals, cittern, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards
Jo Beth Young: Vocals, acoustic, electric and bow guitar, keyboards, recorder, percussion

With huge appreciation:
Jules Bangs: Bass guitar (The Spell)
Steve Clarke: Historical Referencing

©️ Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020.

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NIGHTSONG

Three creative minds with a collective interest in where we all come from and the lessons we can learn.

Using history and the good spirits of humankind to inspire love, learning, and community, and to create music for the soul.

ALI KARIM
JOHN REED
JO BETH YOUNG
... more

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